Friday, November 23, 2007

Usted puede luchar...

Corruption "ran rampant" in Madrid City Hall for years until police swooped on a cadre of civil servants earlier this month, accusing them of running a racket to obtain bribes from businesses and individuals in exchange for municipal licenses, court documents show.

....a Civil Guard report ....goes on to accuse the suspects of "enriching themselves" on the backs of people who "only wanted to open their businesses and work in peace, but were instead obliged to hemorrhage money and watch as their assets were ransacked without compassion by civil servants hungry for quick and tasty bites."

The civil servants, in collaboration with a network of solicitors, architects and others, would push through building and business licenses in record time in exchange for backhanders. Investigators are concentrating their attention on 187 particularly suspicious licenses that were obtained in less than a month, when the average time is two years.